"A great ending to the MGS series"

I've been a HUGE fan of the Metal Gear Solid series since Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Every new edition to the saga was incredible and Metal Gear Solid 4 was a great ending to the saga. Metal Gear Solid 4 is enough to satisfy you and not beg for another MGS game. This is one of the games I bought a PS3 for.

StoryThe story was completely amazing and flawless.

First off, the year takes place in 2014, six years after the Big Shell Incident. Snake's new code name is Old Snake. The reason: accelerated aging. Over the 9 years, he's aged quickly. Revolver Ocelot is now named Liquid Ocelot cause he's said to have been taken over by the spirit of Liquid Snake. Old Snake and Liquid Ocelot's goal is to take down the Patriots. But Liquid Ocelot seeks more and wants to take control of the System.

The System is AI controlled and it controls all the PCM armies and weapons. So basically, if you control the System, you'll have a hell of a lot of power.

With help from Hal, Snake's on his last mission to stop Liquid Ocelot. A LOT of the story will unravel and MANY twists will be revealed. Some will be about the Patriots, Liquid Ocelot, and other events that will leave you stunned from how incredible the story is. Some Characters from MGS1 and MGS2 will return. Some will look much different because of all the years that passed by.

You've probably heard that this game is packed with HOURS of cut scenes total. That is true but most cut scenes (only a few are boring) will take your mind off getting to the gameplay.

This is an absolute flawless ending to the Metal Gear Solid story. 10/10

GameplayThe gameplay mechanics from MGS2 and MGS1 are back but even better improved and more options. Once again you'll have to sneak around a lot trying to kill the enemy with a weapon or just sneak past by. A lot of good weapons will be introduced. Starting off with the camera. Yes, you can finally be able to control the camera view instead of having only one view and you have to see the environment ahead by going into first person view. You'll still be able to know what direction you are going because there's a compass like thing on the screen that points what direction north is in.

The whole camouflage percentage from MGS3 is back. Obviously the percentage shows how visible you are. When equipped with the Solid Eye (you'll read about it soon), you'll have a mini map that indicates you and enemies around you. There will be a circle around the enemy and you. The circle around the enemy shows how far they can see. If the circle around you is in range with the enemy circle, the enemy will have a chance of seeing you if they look your way. The higher your camouflage percentage is, the smaller your circle becomes. The lower your camouflage percentage, the bigger your circle becomes. I'm glad that gameplay feature is back because I love it.

Now to talk about the incredible new items starting with Octocamo. This was an amazing feature. The octocamo is a new camouflage made for Snake that mixes in with ANY environment. All you have to do is crawl or if it's a wall then just press yourself against it like you're sneaking. It'll only take a few seconds for octocamo to mix in with that environment. And yes, I mean any even tables. Once blended in, you're camouflage percentage will increase significantly. This was such a wonderful feature.

Now on to the Solid Eye. Your solid eye can be up to three things. One is where it's just a binocular/scope where you can zoom in and out to discover what's ahead of you. Next is the Night vision goggles. Everything around you will look like night vision and you'll still have the mini map. The last one is just the normal mini map that indicates you and the enemies around you. Your Solid Eye has battery so you might want to not use it when it's 100% not needed. Don't panic though. If you unequip the Solid Eye, then the battery will recharge fairly quickly. Throughout the game, you may find new battery packs that make the battery last even longer. Once again, a new great item in the game. Three things in one item! That's just great.

Once you reach this certain part in the game, you'll be able to by weapons and ammo anytime you like. It's not free though. You'll have to spend DP (Drebin Points. It's called Drebin Points because the man who sells you the weapons is named Drebin). To earn DP, you sell weapons or ammo and (I THINK) you can earn some by killing people. I loved this option. No more worries about ammo because I can buy some new ones. It's pretty cheap too and you earn DP easily. 10/10

GraphicsSo darn beautiful and incredible. Using the use of the power of the PS3, Kojima Productions made Metal Gear Solid 4 one of the best looking games on the PS3 to date. The environments are packed with detail and attracting. This includes everything from the buildings, ground, and interiors. Not only that, the characters are stunning and mix in with the greatness of the environment. Now about the cut scenes. There also great. It sort of looks like you're watching a movie with the mix of the good animations and I'll state again, awesome graphics. Cut scenes include some interactivity like pressing X for flashbacks and L1 for different viewpoints.

The octocamo mixes in with the environment it copies. For example, if you're lying on ground that's diamond checkered like, then your clothes will be diamond shaped checkered. It's great they were able to add those details in.10/10

SoundA lot of the sound effects from the other MGS games are in this one ex. rifle shot sounds, silencers, etc. Each sound effects perfectly matches in with what's happening. The music is what I liked the most about the sound. I turn the volume up high to hear the awesome music. Each song mixes in with the situation whether it be sad situation, combat, or dramatic. Now on to voice acting. Since I played all the other MGS games, I know what to expect on voice acting: Incredibleness. This game is so far my favorite at voice acting. It's so good it's comparable to Hollywood films. No, I'm not exaggerating at all. It's that good. 10/10

ReplayabilityI can play this plenty of times and not get bored (already beat it twice). The main thing you'll probably want to do after beating this game the first time is getting a better rank at the end of the game. Most likely you'll want to get the rank to unlock Stealth Camouflage, Bandanna. To get this rank, you have to get no alert phases and you can't kill anybody. About killing everybody, you'll probably thinking, "How the hell am I going to do that?" Well you can because you still have your weapons that just put people to sleep. There's also the all the other weapons that you'd want to unlock like the almighty Solar Gun. If you get bored of just beating the game, then there's always online play. 10/10

Overall Score: 10/10

This is the only game so far that I've ever given a perfect score in everything. It's that good. As I've said before many times, this was an amazing ending to the MGS series.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10 | Originally Posted: 09/02/08

Game Release: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (US, 06/12/08)

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